Picking up where the first half of the season left off, To Be Hero X Cour 2, a donghua (Chinese animation) by Studio LAN, Pb Animation, and Paper Plane, continues to explore the growing cast of characters as it sets up the narrative for the next tournament to decide who will be Hero X.
The twelve episodes that make up the back half of this season lean all but exclusively on the strength of its cast. Each hero is memorable both in terms of abilities and visual design. Most are likeable personalities one can easily cheer for, making the clashes to come in the Hero X tournament sure to break a few hearts as fan favorites inevitably fall by the wayside.
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Despite the season largely being a set of origin stories, To Be Hero X Cour 2 manages to keep each hero’s background feeling fresh from the others. A wide range of scenarios unfolds, helping the season maintain its momentum as it shifts from story to story, until several of the heroes are drawn together into a larger plot that culminates in the closing moments of the run.
To Be Hero X remains one of the best looking animations (dongua) out.
One element of the characters that the series does fail with at times is the powers wielded by the heroes. While some are obvious in their function, others are extremely vague and undefined. This is especially true of X (Mamoru Miyano, Fire Force).
While he’s shown using his powers multiple times, what precisely is happening is never made clear. And if he’s doing what he looks like he’s doing, either he’s unstoppable, or the story is going to have to go to great lengths crafting a scenario where he could actually be beaten.
While the season takes great pains to flesh out its characters, it does not extend this care to its plot. While certain elements are introduced and explored on a basic level early on, much of the core story goes unrevealed until the final episode. Only then, via an inelegant info dump on the part of the mysterious X, does the series bother to fill in the plethora of blanks that remain up until that point.
At times, this BilliBilli production just has too much going on.
This sloppy delivery of the plot does a huge disservice to some of the concepts it contains. A sizable twist puts the framing of heroes and trust into a whole new light in the final episodes. But simply spewing so much of it out at the last moment creates a sense of disinterest. As if it simply wants to get the story out of the way so we can get back to the characters and action. This leaves huge concerns for how future plot elements will be handled.
What’s more, this rough handling of key plot elements feels even worse when combined with the previously mentioned vagueness where powers are concerned. Playing fast and loose with key elements won’t necessarily keep future seasons from being entertaining, but it could be a sizable obstacle to overcome if the series actually wants to stay good. Unless it allows these shortcomings to spiral out of control, in which case, this could become a real mess fast.
Despite leaving some concerns with narratively, one place where To Be Hero X Cour 2 rarely stumbles is with its visuals. Gorgeous animation saturates the stories the series tells, bringing the characters and action to life. Even the style-swapping elements that made the first handful of episodes in the season visual treats return to wow us. However, there is one small hiccup here.
To Be Hero X’s cour 2 delivers important character moments, but at the cost of plot.
The characters who were previously seen bouncing between 3D and 2D art styles were all introduced in 3D. As it turns out, going from CGI to animation is far less disconcerting than the other way around. Seeing Lucky Cyan (Inori Minase, takt op.Destiny), Queen (Kana Hanazawa, Mononoke The Movie), and Little Johnny (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Gamera: Rebirth) suddenly in 3D feels strangely off-putting. The models themselves all look well-crafted and true to their original designs, but there’s just something off about how they translate.
To Be Hero X Cour 2 continues to deliver great characters and eye-popping visuals, but at the expense of its plot and world-building. The lack of equal care for all its elements leaves the season feeling uneven as it wraps up. This raises concerns about what may happen if these narrative inequalities are allowed to persist.
To Be Hero X Cour 2 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
rating 7/10
